LeBron James rates Heat's play at 7 out of possible 10

The Miami Heat entered the All-Star break with the best record in the Eastern Conference, but LeBron James believes the team's best basketball is still ahead.

The Heat are third in the NBA with a 36-14 record and have won seven straight. But on a scale of 1 to 10, James rates the Heat's play at a seven. And he's OK with that.

"I think that's exactly what we want to be right now," James said before Saturday's All-Star practice. "We don't want to be at a 10 with 50-plus games to be played [including playoffs]. Right now we're about at a seven. But our seven has an arrow that's going up."

For Miami to take the next step, coach Erik Spoelstra wants to see his club improve against other playoff contenders in the East. The Heat are 0-5 combined against the Pacers, Bulls and Knicks. Miami has six games total remaining against those teams.

"We'll own where we are right now. The fact of the matter is we haven't beaten Indiana, Chicago or New York yet and our guys know that," Spoelstra said. "We have an opportunity to change that and in the last third of the season we will meet all those teams again. They are all playing at a high level and we need to improve in certain areas, even with how well we've been playing for the last two weeks now."

James wants to see Miami become a better road team. The Heat are 13-11 on the road, compared to 23-3 at American Airlines Arena. Recently, though, Miami has shown signs of fixing its road woes with five wins in its last seven contests away from home.

"I think we've had some good road games the last couple weeks," James said before mentioning wins against the Thunder, Warriors, Lakers and Nets. "It's not just the caliber of the teams we played but the magnitude of how much we needed a staple road win. So those games really helped us."

The season won't get any easier after the All-Star break and Spoelstra expects the final playoff push to be "incredibly fierce."

"When you come out of this, the entire league and everyone who is in the playoff hunt starts to go to another level," said Spoelstra, who will coach the East in Sunday's All-Star Game. "So you feel the competition. It's a fun time of year."